Recipe - Brisket Zweigenthal

6 pound Firstcut brisket
3 tablespoon Vegetable oil
3 lg Yellow onions; cut into 1/2
inch dice (approximately 5
cups)
3 lg Garlic cloves; minced
1 teaspoon Hungarian paprika
Three fourths teaspoon Salt
Three fourths teaspoon Pepper
3 cup Water or beef broth

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. In a Dutch oven, heat 1 tablespoon oil in oven
for 10 minutes. Pat brisket dry and season with salt and pepper. Roast
brisket in pan, uncovered, 30 minutes. (If brisket completes 30 minutes
cooking time before the onion mixture explained below is complete, remove
brisket from the oven and allow it to rest.) Reduce oven heat to 350
degrees. While brisket is in the initial cooking phase, cook onions in
remaining 2 tablespoons oil over moderate heat in skillet. Stir until
onions are softened and beginning to turn golden. Reduce heat to
lowmoderate and continue cooking onions until deep brown, stirring
occasionally. (If necessary, reduce heat to keep onions from burning.) Stir
in garlic, paprika, salt and pepper and cook 1 minute. Stir in 3 cups
water/beef broth and bring to a boil. Spoon onion mixture over brisket and
bake, covered with lid One half inch ajar for 3 One half hours or until brisket is
tender. Check pan every hour and, if necessary, add more liquid. Remove
brisket and let cool in onion mixture for 1 hour. Remove brisket from pan,
scraping onion mixture off meat and back into pan. Chill, wrapped in foil,
overnight. Spoon onion mixture into a 1 quart measuring cup and chill,
covered, overnight. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Discard fat from
onion mixture. If necessary, add enough liquid to measure 3 cups total. In
a blender, process the gravy until smooth. Heat onion gravy in a saucepan.
Slice the cooled brisket against the grain. Lay brisket slices in a 13" X
9" baking dish. Pour heated onion gravy over the meat slices, lifting up
each slice as you pour to make sure some gravy comes in contact fully with
each piece of meat. Heat brisket in oven for 30 minutes.

Karen Selwyn

Notes from KPS: The Zweigenthal in the title is Gail Zweigenthal, the
editorinchief of GOURMET magazine. The story behind this recipe has
resonance for me and I assume many others whose mothers and mothers
~inlaw have had their cooking skills diminished with time or have had
family recipes lost through death. At some point after her mother's death,
Zweigenthal realized she did not have a copy of her mother's brisket
recipe. She tried recreating the recipe as best she could, but she never
had complete success. She put out a request for brisket recipes to the
employees of GOURMET in the hopes that a reasonable facsimile of her
mother's recipe would turn up. She explained that while she got lots of
interesting

Board: FOOD BB Topic: FOOD SOFTWARE Subject: NEW JEWISH FORMATS

To: BGMB90B ELAINE RADIS Date: 11/19 From: BGMB90B ELAINE RADIS Time: 3:25
PM
Posted to MCRecipe Digest by "M. Hicks" nitro_ii@email.msn.com on Feb 4,
1998